Paper crinkling



May 13,1924. 1,494,262

W. A. LORENZ PAPER CRINKLING Filed Feb. 16. 1921 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 /7 F .1 F1 Km 32 WWW 4 mm ll 1/ I /1llUl/I'1HL Z3 \I l I 2; l Q I Z5 J, 26 M} s F M! 1 233; m l i A,

T lY UK] I; U T 3 v Z Patented May 33, 192 i.

entree stares eeter raraar WILLIAM A. LORENZ, O'F HARTFORD, CONNECTTCUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE OTAKA FABRIC COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

PAPER CRINKLING.

Application filed February 16, 1921. Serial No. 445,285.

To all whom it mag concern.

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. LORENZ, a citizen of the United States, residing in Hartford, in the county of Hartford and 5 State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in- Paper Crinkling, of which the following is a spec ification.

This invention relates to producing crped or gathered paper, and certain features thereof may be employed in producing embossed paper.

It has been the practice to crepe paper by passing it over a cylinder, and causing the cylinder to crush the paper against an abutment (termed a doctor-blade), thereby producing the desired crepe effect; the blade being also used for stripping the paper from the cylinder, being so placed that its sharp edge works in between the paper and the cylinder. In order to cause the paper to adhere with sufficient force to enable the cylinder-to crush it, the paper was moistened; but in attempting to crepe moist paper (especially thin or weak paper) difficulty was found, because the stripping blade was apt to tear the Web. In attempting to crepe heavy paper other difliculties were found, since the paper, because of its stiffness, tended to spring away from the cylinder, which, therefore, could not thrust the paper against the doctor-blade with the requisite force to produce the desired crushing or crinkling.

There was the further difficulty that the speed of operation was unduly limited, because when higher speeds were attempted it resulted that the paper was driven too rapidly against the doctor-blade, givin inferior results, and entailing increase liability of tearing the web.

One of the objects of the invention is to overcome the foregoing difficulties, and to produce an apparatus for crinkling paper at high speed, including paper which is thin, weak and wet, as well as paper which is heavy, stifl and relatively dry, and intermediate grades.

To accomplish these and other ends, there is provided a main revolving cylinder around which the moist web runs and to which it adheres, and a co-operative revolving cylinder so arranged that the web runs between the two cylinders. The second cylinder is revolved at less surface speed than the main cylinder. The cylinders are placedclose to each other without contact, and co-operate-to f9rm in efiect a throat, which grips the paper without tearing it. Owing to the difference in speed of the cylindrical surfaces, the paper in the throat slips on one cylinder or the other, or both. Inasmuch as the main cylinder tends to drive the moist paper at high speed, past the cooperative cylinder having a low speed, it results that the speed of the paper is reduced, and that the paper is accordingly crped or crinkled in transverse lines. In practice the paper emerges at a slow speed about equal to that of the crinkling cylinder, and may be carried around the latter and delivered therefrom.

For enabling the slow cylinder to set up the required resistance for the purpose of crinkling, its surface may be roughened or broken, so that the paper will not slip past the same.

It will be understood that the paper running around the main cylinder is carried thereby into a throat (formed by the 00- 50 operation of the two cylinders) which gradually becomes constricted; and because of the reduced speed of the second cylinder, said throat retards the paper, while the main cylinder delivers it rapidly into the throat, 35 whereby the paper is crinkled. The crin kling is of an excellent character, owing to the nearness of the cylinder surfaces to each other at the narrow part of the throat.

A further feature of the invention resides in providing clearance in the slow cylinder, to facilitate the crinkling and control its character. Clearances for this purpose may be formed at short intervals around the slow cylinder, and may take the form of longitudinal grooves cut in its periphery, and these grooves may be of rel atively small dimensions and close together, thereby forming ribs or rifiies, and giving the cylinder the appearance of a toothed 199 wheel, in face view. The rear face of each riflie or tooth may be about radial, and the advancing face may extend obliquely from the cylinder periphery to the bottom of the groove; but the invention is not limited to this particular kind or shape of clearance.

The provision of clearances in the slow or crinkling cylinder not only gives sufiicient room for the crinkles to form in the paper, but also has the advantage of producing the succession of rifiles o1 ridges against the corners of which the paper may crinkle; Since these are traveling ridges, there is always a new ridge being presented for holding back the paper, which need not be pinched tightly between the two cylinders, so that there is no liability of rupture.

The cylinders are geared together to secure the desired relative speed, and this relation persists even though the main cylinder is driven at very high speed. In other words, the speed of the slow cylinder increases in proportion, so that the cylinders may co-operate in the same way to perform the same work upon the web over a long range of speeds; paper may be crinkled more rapidly than by previous methods. Even very moist weak paper may be crinkled at high speed without liability of rupture, thus making it practicable to produce an inexpensive product, which has not before been the case, inasmuch as attempted increase of the speed at which the cylinder delivered moist weak paper against the usual doctor or stripper blade, has damaged the. paper by rupture and otherwise. By the present invention even a low grade of paper may be crinkled very rapidly. Since the doctor-blade is eliminated, there arises no scraping of the paper from the cylinder, and hence no resultant tearing. The whole crinkling set is rotative, and the relative effectiveness remains the same even at high speed, so that the output of the machine may be vastly increased without liability of injury or of an inferior output.

In the case of heavy or stiff paper, the cylinders co-operate to confine the paper in the throat and along the crinkling line, so that the oncoming paper will not spring or bulge away from the main cylinder. In other words, the slow cylinder, because of its position, tends to confine and bend the heavy sheet around the main cylinder, thus favoring the clinging of the sheet to the latter, and enabling it to drive the paper into the throat with the force requisite for effecting the crinkling. The most heavy paper or web is preferably rolled against the main cylinder in a manner to drive out all air between the web and the cylinder, the moist web thereafter adhering closely to the surface of the cylinder, and bein also bent thereagainst by the slow cylin er as just explained.

Owing to the provision of clearances in the slow cylinder, a design is produced upon the product, consisting of partly crinkled portions alternating with less crinkled or uncrinkled portions, thus enhancin the appearance and salability' of the pro not, and also increasing its usefulness for many purposes.

The effect of the rolls upon the paper may be varied by varying their relative speeds,

and also by varying the intervals between the clearances, and by varying the depth and form of the clearances, and in other ways.

Other features and advantages will hereinafter appear. In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a plan of an apparatus for practicing the present improvements in one form.

Figure 2 is a sectional side elevation of the same, taken at about. the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragment of Figure 2, showing diagrammatically the crinkling of-the paper or web.

F igure 4 is a plan of the crinkling or gathering apparatus, showing a different construction of clearance on the slow cylinder, to give a different crinkling effect from the cylinder seen at Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a sectional side elevation on about the line 55 of Figure 4. In Figures 4 and 5 provision is made for wetting paper that has been previously manufactured; but in Figures 1 and 2 the apparatus is used in connection with a moist pulp web producible on a paper-making machine.

Figure 6 is an enlarged fragment of Figure 5, showing diagrammatically the crinkling operation.

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, inclusive, the web of moistpulp 10, producible at one stage of the operation of a paper-making machine, is led between pressure rolls 11, 12, which squeeze out a large part of the water from the pulp. Then the moist web is fed over a guideroll 13 onto a main cylinder 14, which may be all metal, or mav consist of a small metal cylinder 15 provided with a thick smooth facing 16 of a soft rubber compound, such as employed for wringer rolls, or other suitable compound. The moist web runs over this main cylinder 14 and is firmly pressed thereagainst by a roll having a felt, soft rubber or other yielding body 18, whereby the moist web is pressed very firmly against the main cylinder at 16, so that air is pressed out between the web and the cylinder 16, and hence the moist web is caused to adhere closely to said main cylinder.

The web passes between the main cylinder 14 and a slowly rotating cylinder 17; these cylinders being connected by a small gear 19 and a large gear 20. to secure the desired ratio of speed. The proportions of these gears may be varied as desired for different classes of work or for crinkling different material.

The paper passes between these cylinders, instead of being turned aside byan abutment or doctor-blade, as was the former practice; and since the cylinders have different surface s eeds the paper tends to slip on the fast cy inder 14 having a smooth surface and to be picked up by the slow cylinder 17 having a rough surface, as seen at Figure 1. In other words, the travel of the web is checked at about the pointwhere the throat 21 between the two cylinders becomes narrowest. This checking at this point does not diminish the speed of the oncoming portion of the web, and hence the oncoming Web as soon as it reaches said throat is crushed against the retarded portion of the paper that already occupies the throat. In other words, the paper crinkles, the crinkling operation beginning just above a line joining the cylinder axes, and being completed by the time the paper begins to emerge from the crinkling set at 22. The crinkled product may be carried around the cylinder 17 and delivered by a belt 23 to any suitable drying apparatus.

Preferably the slow cylinder 17 is formed with numerous spaces or clearances, which, in this instance, are illustrated as being in the nature of grooves or depressions 24, parallel with the axis of the cylinder and extending the length thereof. These clearances or spaces give room in which the paper may crinkle, as at 25, and control the character of the crinkling, and they may be either of the proportions shown or narrower or wider. Thev may be also either shallower or deeper, to change the design or appearance of the product. The design in this instance is seen at 26, igure 1, as .comprising relatively smooth or uncrinkled transverse bars or ribs 29, alternating with bands 28 of crinkled material. The bars 29 may be either narrow,

as shown, or wide, according to the extent of separation of the clearances 24 in the cylinder 17. Each clearance preferably has a wall 30, Figure'3, which is about radial, and a wall 31, which extends from the periphery of the cylinder diagonally to the bottom of the clearance. It will be seen at Figure 3 that the face of the cylinder resembles a toothed wheel, in which the teeth indicate the ends of the riflles; the diagonals 31 forming the advance sides of the teeth or riflies.

The clearances may be separated by narrow portions 32 left on the periphery of the cylinder 17, constituting riflles, ridges, bars or raised portions alternating with the clearances or depressed portions; this configuration producing the design of paper seen at 28, 29, Figure 1. The cylinder 17may be otherwise marked or formed, as, for example, the bars or ribs 32 may extend helically, or other configurations or designs upon the periphery may be adopted for different purposes. The efi'ect of the design is to provide the surface of the cylinder 17 with numerous interruptions, whereby said cylinder is rendered rougher to the paper than the surface of cylinder 16, so that the paper tends to slip away from the latter, and to be controlled by cylinder 17. The bars 32 with their ed es 30 form a succession of rifiles over whic the paper accordingly; e

paper tends to bend,-with consequent slowing down and wrinkling of the paper in passing through the throat. The raised design on the periphery of the cylinder 17 does not need to be limited to a set of riflles or bars. By varying the shape, spacing or arrangement of the rifiies on the crinkling roll, various) crinkling designs will be formed in the we It will be seen that in all the views the two cylinders 14, 17 do not quite touch, so that the web is not severed or injured, while yet the cylinders are close enough to-enable the crinkling cylinder to engage the paper, to eifect the result already explained. The more rapid the surface speed of cylinder 14, the more rapid will be the surface speed of cylinder 17, the result on the paper being about the same at all speeds up to a high limit, so that the product may be rapidly delivered and economy secured.

At Figures 4, 5 and 6, a web of finished paper 33 is led from a roll 34, and through a water bath 35, and around a roll 36 to a main cylinder 37, which may be of metal; the wet paper being pressed firmly against said cylinder by the rubber or soft roll 18. The

main cylinder 37 has a small gear 38 meshing with a large gear 39 upon the axle of a crinkling cylinder 40, which revolves at slower surface speed than 37. In place of the continuous riffles 32 on the crinkling cylini der, there may be used rifiles that are pro vided with cut-away portions 41, thus giving them an interrupted or tooth-like appearance, as at 42, these teeth extending in rows longitudinally of the cylinder and having an echelon arrangement, thus exhibiting a different design from that seen at Figure'l, and producing a different pattern on the crinkled product. The clearance between the interrupted rifiles on the cylinder at 40 is illustrated as very much greater than that upon the crinkling cylinder 17 thereby producing a difference in the character of crinkling from that shown at 26, Figure 1; while the interruptions 41 in the rifiles tend to produce a further variation in the design of the product. The rows or lines of interruptions extend helically around the cylinder, to give the echelon, arrangement above-mentioned. The teeth 42 may be directed helically instead of parallel with the cylinder axis; and numerous other variations in rifiles, teeth or other projecting portions may be adopted within the scope of the invention.

Certain features of the invention may be employed without crinklin the paper, as, for example, the two cylin ers may be run at the same surface speed, and the cylinder having the raised "design will emboss the the main cylinder being preferably provl d for this purpose with a soft rubber face or shell, so that the embossing cylinder'may press the paper into the soft rubber, thereby producing an excellent embossing effect, which may be varied as desired according to the design of the ribs or projecting portions upon the embossing cylinder.

Variations may be resorted to within the scope of the invention, and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a web-crinkling machine, the combination with a revolving main cylinder, of a co-operative or second cylinder, said cylinders placed close to each other without contact, and co-operative to form a throat into which the web is driven by the main cylinder and by which the progress of the web is retarded and crinkled transversely, said second cylinder revolving at a slower surface speed than said main cylinder, and having a rough surface, said main cylinder havlng an outer shell or facing of a yieldin rubber compound.

2. In a web-crink ing machine, the combination with a revolving main cylinder, of

face of each rifile being about radial and the 0 advancing face extending obliquely from the periphery of the cylinder to the bottom of the next rifile.

4. The combination of a main cylinder having arelatively soft surface portion, and a second, cylinder geared thereto, and having raised portions forming a design upon its periphery to oo-operate with the first cylinder in forming figures or designs upon the paper Web passing between the cylinders, said second cylinder having less surface. speed than said main cylinder.

5. The combination of a main revolving cylinder, and a crinkling cylinder revolving at slower surface speed and set closely to said main cylinder, said crinkling cylinder having in its periphery numerous grooves extending the length of the cylinder, said grooves formed at intervals so as to leave riflles in the cylinder, said rilfles extending helically.

6. The combination with a revolving m'nin cylinder, of a crinkling cylinder set close thereto and connected to run at different surface speed. and having rifiles formed with cut-away portions to give them the form of rows of separated teeth.

7. The combination with a revolving main cylinder, of a crinkling cylinder set close thereto and connected to run at different surface speed, and having riffles formed with cut-away portions to give them the form of rows of teeth, the teeth having echelon arrangement.

\VILLIAM A. LORENZ. Witnesses:

LILLIAN M. TAYLOR, D. MAUDE'SMITH. 

